When we come to artificial intelligence and the possibility of their becoming conscious we reach a profound philosophical difficulty.
每当我们谈到人工智能以及他们拥有自我意识的时候，就会陷入一种深奥的哲学困境
I am a philosophical naturalist.
我是个哲学自然主义者
I am committed to the view that there’s nothing in our brains that violates the laws of physics,
我深信我们大脑中的任何东西都没有违反自然定律
there’s nothing that could not in principle be reproduced in technology.
原则上，没有什么东西不能被技术复制
It hasn’t been done yet, we’re probably quite a long way away from it,
虽然现在还没有实现，而且可能还有很长的路要走
but I see no reason why in the future we shouldn’t reach the point where a human made robot is capable of consciousness and of feeling pain.
但我看不出有什么理由未来不让人造机器拥有自己的意识和疼痛感

We can feel pain, why shouldn’t they?
我们能感受到痛，它们怎么就不能呢？
And this is profoundly disturbing because it kind of goes against the grain to think that
这就有些让人烦恼了，因为让一个用金属和硅片做成的机器拥有疼痛感
a machine made of metal and silicon chips could feel pain, but I don’t see why they would not.
与人们的想法背道而驰，但我就不明白为什么不能这样
And so this moral consideration of how to treat artificially intelligent robots will arise in the future,
所以未来将会出现如何对待人工智能机器人的道德思考
and it’s a problem which philosophers and moral philosophers are already talking about.
而哲学家和道德哲学家也已经开始讨论这个问题了
Once again, I’m committed to the view that this is possible.
再说一遍，我坚信这是可以实现的
I’m committed to the view that anything that a human brain can do can be replicated in silicon.
我坚信任何人脑能做的事情都能用硅片复制出来
And so I’m sympathetic to the misgivings that have been expressed by highly respected figures like Elon Musk and Steven Hawking
所以我很同情像伊隆·马斯克和史蒂芬·霍金这样备受尊敬的人物所传达出来的担忧
that we ought to be worried that on the precautionary principle we should worry about a takeover perhaps even by robots by our own creation,
他们说从风险预防角度来看，我们应该担忧人类创造出来的机器人可能掌控一切
especially if they reproduce themselves and potentially even evolve by reproduction and don’t need us anymore.
尤其是它们能够自我繁殖并在此过程中得到进化，从而不再需要人类的时候
This is a science-fiction speculation at the moment, but I think philosophically I’m committed to the view that it is possible,
现阶段，这只是科幻小说中的幻想场景，但从哲学角度来看，我相信这是可能实现的
and like any major advance we need to apply the precautionary principle and ask ourselves what the consequences might be.
就像许多重大进步一样，我们需要采取预防原则，并问问自己可能会有什么后果
It could be said that the sum of not human happiness but the sum of sentient-being happiness might be improved,
可以说是众生幸福而不是人类幸福将会得到提升
they might make a better job do a better job of running the world than we are, certainly that we are at present,
他们可能更出色，能比我们更好的统治这个世界，当然，是比我们现在要好
and so perhaps it might not be a bad thing if we went extinct.
所以或许人类的灭绝是件好事呢
And our civilization, the memory of Shakespeare and Beethoven and Michelangelo persisted in silicon rather than in brains and our form of life.
而我们的文明，莎士比亚、贝多芬和米开朗基罗的记忆都保存在硅片中而不是人脑或者人类世界里
And one could foresee a future time when silicon beings look back on a dawn age when the earth was peopled by soft squishy watery organic beings
人们可以预见，在未来某一时刻，机器人回头看到一个黎明时代，那时候地球上住满了湿软多水的有机生物体
and who knows that might be better, but we’re really in the science fiction territory now.
谁知道那可能会更好呢，但我们确实已经到了科幻小说的领域中